Ultra-mobile devices that include netbooks, mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) are forecast to see considerable uptake in 2009 and 2010, albeit the slow economy. Based on a recent study, IMS Research is forecasting that over 50 million connected ultra-mobile devices will ship in 2009, excluding smartphones. 

A new study, Emerging Ultra-mobile Device Markets, reveals that many OEMs are actively deploying new products that would fall within three ultra-mobile categories. Anna Hunt, report author, comments:

“Netbooks and MIDs have the opportunity to gain mass market appeal very quickly, considering low up-front cost. Operator subsidies, connectivity, and compelling content and services will likely make these products even more desirable to a variety of consumer types.” IMS Research forecasts that 207 million ultra-mobile devices, excluding smartphones, will ship in 2014. Hunt adds, “Many OEMs are optimistic that consumers will look towards low-cost netbooks instead of full-featured laptops when replacing a desktop PC or as an ideal low-cost product for a child.”

3G-enabled netbooks are also believed to see strong adoption due to subsidized distribution by carriers, with T-Mobile (NYSE: DT), Orange, and AT&T (NYSE: T), amongst others, expected to drive much of the volume. UMPCs are the one segment of the ultra-mobile device market that will likely see little growth, especially in 2009, due to the niche appeal and high cost of these products.

Connectivity is a key feature in ultra-mobile devices. IMS Research forecasts that in 2014, 64% of ultra-mobile devices shipping, including smartphones,  will be equipped with three or more connectivity technologies, such as Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth.

My fave tech-talk site, NetLingo, is back once again with another classic term:

gremlins

The mysterious characters that sometimes appear on your computer screen, often in text documents and sometimes in code or e-mail messages.
For instance, if you copy the contents of a file from one program to another by highlighting the text with your cursor and then cutting-and-pasting, strange boxes or symbols may appear in the white space. At that point, you have to figure out another way to transfer the information or you have to go through and delete the bad characters, all the while muttering, “Darn gremlins.”

I remember back to the bad old days of Mobile devices, when their limited character-set support often meant you could get a random set of gibberish-speak on screen! Working for a handset vendor at the time, we spent hours trying to work round poor support on certain devices and between services.

Fast forward five years and now it seems that an increasing amount of spam email doesn’t even consist of intelligible characters – quite apart from what they are suggesting I do with myself (!), many emails just don’t make any  sense.

Combine the two trends and you have the scourge of my life currently – spam email on my mobile. Well at least I know who to blame now – the gremlins in my machines!

[Via: NetLingo]

I regularly get my tech-talk update from NetLingo, the best techie dictionary on the InterWeb I reckon! Today is no different we have the grand term:

clunky

A term used to describe something slow or outdated, as in, “That dinosaur browser sure is clunky.” It implies you can hear the machinery hobbling about trying to process your commands.

Classic! I think I’ve said this term 00’s of times in the last 10 or so years, mainly pertaining to the user experience on Mobile devices. Computers I think often get the thick end of being described this way, but the amount of Operating Systems which have been laggy, illogical, or downright frustrating (all falling in to the superset of CLUNKY) is very high!

Now what is the clunkiest device you’ve ever had? 10 points for the winner

[Via: NetLingo]

BT, and a number of other mobile broadband providers are apparently blocking access to The Pirate Bay, according to PC Pro.

Interestingly if you try and access the site, you get a message saying the page has been blocked in compliance with a new voluntary code – now, that code has come from an organisation called the IWF – or Internet Watch Foundation.

The IWF is a kind of Internet content monitoring agency, looking out (as far as I was aware) for things like inappropriate adult content. However it’s not clear why The Pirate Bay is added to their list.

All of the mobile broadband providers are following the same code according to PC Pro, which suggests it’s not just The Pirate Bay that is going to be blocked/filtered – it is however, the website du jour since the high profile cases in the news….

Well it’s an interesting precedent of sorts – up till now the general assumed view was that people should perhaps police their own viewing, but certainly in the case of mobile broadband, it would seem there is a proxy of sorts in place, doing it for us.

What do you say readers? Fair? Shocking? Let us know…..

[Original story via: PC Pro]

Following from my last post about the Mobile Security Challenge launched in the UK, check out these interesting (and in some cases alarming) stats about Mobiles:

1. 4 billion mobile phones are in operation worldwide (source: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE51A2I820090211)

2. There are twice as many mobile phones as credit cards in the world (source: http://www.gizmag.com/orange-near-field-mobile-phone-payment/11216/ )

3. There are 70 million mobile handsets in the UK, of which 4.2 million are vulnerable to ID theft. (source: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/newslog/UK+Market+Tops+70+Million+Vodafone+Leads+Subscriber+Growth.aspx )

4. 80% of mobile phones contain enough data to commit identity fraud (source: http://www.securitywatch.co.uk/2009/03/18/phone-data-makes-42-million-brits-vulnerable-to-id-theft/ )

5. 40% of users have no password or PIN securing their phone. (source: http://www.securitywatch.co.uk/2009/03/18/phone-data-makes-42-million-brits-vulnerable-to-id-theft/ )

6. In the UK 16% of people carry their bank details and 24% carry their passwords and pin numbers on their phones (source: http://www.securitywatch.co.uk/2009/03/20/brits-naive-about-mobile-phone-security/ )

7. In 2006, two per cent of mobile users, 800,000 people, were victims of  phone theft, (source: http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/statistics/statistics065.htm )

8. TFL and O2 (NYSE: TEF) have already teamed up to combine Oyster cards and mobiles with swipable phones – and 85% liked the system. (source: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/archive/6592.aspx )

9. German supermarkets have introduced a barcode scanning system enabling shoppers to store their shopping list in their phone and speed up time at the checkout. (source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7476672.stm)

10. Japanese phone giant NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) is set to launch a new mobile phone feature making house keys, and cash, redundant. (source: http://www.techjapan.com/Article674.html)

Wowzer! When you look at the combination of volume of targetable devices, and the info on-board them, no wonder they are such a hot (and unsecured) commodity! PIN-code your moby now methinks!

Flirtomatic have announced that over 3000 people have entered the Miss Great Britain 2009 competition via their mobile.

Since the competition began on March 23rd, more than 3000 contestants have sent over 10,000 virtual gifts, been rated more than 100,000 times and received 1m messages, all to try and win a place in the final of Miss Great Britain on May 12th.
Girls have not been the only ones registering their interest in the Face of Flirtomatic competition. The service has seen over 2000 people sign up to become judges for the competition, interacting with contestants for the chance to take part in the selection process.

30% of entries have come from normal, everyday girls, who perhaps wouldn’t have taken the time and effort to go through the traditional mode of entering by attending auditions etc. 70% have come from guys looking to be judges in the Flirtomatic competition, keen to see if they can uncover the next Miss Great Britain.
The Miss Great Britain contest has been around since 1945 but this year’s contest is the world’s first to accept entries via mobile – reinventing the traditional event with modern technology. Combining the popularity of online social networking with a physical event has proved highly successful with both the female and male users on Flirtomatic.

Mark Curtis, CEO of Flirtomatic: “Our users, both male and female, have responded to this competition in a way that has completely surpassed our expectations. Whenever we try something new like this, we very quickly find out whether it’s going to be a success, simply from the way our users react.”

Mark continued: “It’s true that a beauty contest, isn’t really going to rock the world, but it’s been a bold move for us to interact in such a way with an offline event. This is a physical, traditional event that began 64 years ago and we’ve pulled it into the mobile, online world. One of our aims for this, was to try and give mobile a sense of relevancy in the real world, to see if we can successfully take the work of a social network offline and I hope we’ve achieved the beginnings of that.”

The Face of Flirtomatic competition ran from March 23rd until April 19th and was only open to UK users. Any girl with a Flirtomatic profile has the chance to win the Miss GB Face of Flirtomatic competition and book their place in the final of Miss Great Britain 2009 on May 12th at Café de Paris in London.

[Via: Flirtomatic]

Here comes NetLingo with another classic tech-term:

inner geek

The techie deep within each of us. It’s what we turn to when we’re searching for that abstract clue to help us unlock the secret to our favorite game or when we’re trying to remember how we did something in a software program. For example, “If I could just get in touch with my ‘inner geek,’ I could reach the next level.”

Superb! I’d say that in the Mobile space there are plenty of us that call of us that call on our inner geek on a regular basis – be it trying to get push email to work, a file to transfer properly over Bluetooth, or camping on to the nearest WiFi network – just because we can!

[Via: NetLingo]

For the final piece of reportage from the Gadget Show Live 2009, I thought I’d mention another wireless tech with a really valid use. This time we are talking about Tyresure, which is a system for wirelessly (via Radio) monitoring the tyre pressures on each wheel of your car/bike/lorry etc.

The system works by having a sensor and transmitter placed inside of each wheel – and then a receiver inside the vehicle – either permanently attached, or turned on when needed.

The logic is sound, since tyres being wrongly inflated means exta wear, more fuel, and also more accidents. As Tyresure say:

The T.P.M.S system constantly monitors tyre pressure and temperature.
The system alerts the driver when tyre pressure or tyre temperatures
are abnormal. It is totally wireless and CE Certified.

In the USA T.P.M.S is required to be fitted by law on new vehicles from
September 2007. Many European vehicles already have this system
installed. It saves fuel, it saves tyre wear, it saves lives.

FEATURES & BENEFITS
• System operates 24hr – 365 days – 7 year battery life
• No need to check tyre pressures
• System alerts driver within 3 seconds of abnormal pressure or temperature
- Benefits
• Better fuel consumption … saves money
• Normal tyre wear … saves money
• No low pressure tyre failure … saves lives

As I said, sounds good to me – and something I am going to be investigating further. If you are interested, you can find out more here.

Ben

What does this tech look like to you? Are you thinking home security? Well, you’d be right – but there’s oh so much more!

Locked Up Monitored Security Ltd have a complete solution that encompasses wirefree security, internet cameras, home automation, and safety too – basically a multi-tiered solution to get your house completely secure and monitored!

What’s cooler though is the fact that most of this is controllable remotely via a web interface (check the pic below), and also that the cameras can text, email, or MMS you what’s going on at home!!!

Of course all this comes at a price – but convergence is going to happen in both security products at home as well as multimedia – give it a few years and this tech will be more of an accepted norm. In the meanwhile you can check out the Locked Up website here.

Ben

Ten points if you can name all of the devices on the bottom row...

So, one of the stands at the Gadget Show Live 2009 was a “History of Gadgets” – it was nice to take some time out of the hustle and bustle, to go look at what was in the mix…

Rapidly, I came across a glass cabinet that had a stack of “mobile” devices – some not so mobile, and others perhaps more so! As per the caption for the pic, Ten IntoMobile Points if you can name all the devices on the bottom row – I’ll get you started – the leftmost device is a Motorola (NYSE: MOT) StarTac

Ben